North West Film Archive

BBC North West Regional News and Documentary Film 1966-1986: Preservation and Research Access

BBC North West documentary catalogue search help

Searching by keyword
This searches the series and programme titles, producer and other credits and the synopsis. If you have a particular subject, person or place of interest you can conduct a keyword search by entering relevant terms or a key phrase, such as town halls or cotton mills, in the keywords box. This will search the individual news item descriptions. You can enter a single term for a broad search, or several words to narrow your search down. If too many results are returned for you to look through, use the Back button in your browser to return to the keyword box and add another relevant word to refine your search.

For example:
The keyword football returned too many results for you to look through, so you could return to the keyword box and enter football Manchester United to limit your search to footage of a particular team.

If your search is unsuccessful, or has too few hits, try thinking of alternative words, e.g., instead of the word seaside, try beaches or seafront. It is also helpful to use concrete words rather than abstract terms, e.g., for images conveying 'love', try entering terms such as weddings or dancing.

Searching by dates
Enter a single year, e.g. 1975 or to search within a date range enter 1975...1980. We hold BBC North documentary material for the years 1966 to 1983.

How to take your enquiry further
If, having searched the online catalogue, you would like to take your enquiry further, it is important to note the dates of the news items in which you are interested. Your enquiry can be submitted using our Comments & Enquiries form, by email to n.w.filmarchive@mmu.ac.uk or by contacting a member of our access team by telephone 0161-247 3097.

Search the BBC North West documentary catalogue

Return to BBC Project home page
Return to North West Film Archive home page